Feedback + Suggestions to new Crafting System Proposal

[ZombieHunter]

Recycle Materials

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While I am happy with the direction - I think one really key aspect not mentioned is material reclamation.

This may sometimes be known more colloquially as Bush ( Bush as in Boonies ) Engineering or Redneck Engineering  

 

One Example I saw - a person's car radiator was leaking on their truck. What did they do? They took one of the extra batteries stored, broke it. 

Took out the lead shards, melted it with a welder and made a temporary patch on the radiator. Was it insanely dangerous? Yes, Did it work? Yes. 

 

In a Apocalypse Scenario a lot of materials you reclaim is not going to be under the ground, 

Forged in Fire ( TV Show ) is another great example 

 

They are given a motorcycle from the Junkyard. The contestants have to break apart the motorcycle for usable metal, clean it, melt it and reforge it.

Not all the people have fancy machines - one used a giant cast iron  pot with coal and bricks to melt his metal. 

 

Material Grade

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One way of Material Extraction is the more you "Extract" the more XP you get in "Extraction" - which gives you "better grade" of materials.

The material grade determines the durability of the the final piece.

 

Blacksmith + Other Crafting -> Apocalypse Survivor

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Instead of adding another 4 more skills for all the crafting trees. 

You could also break it down to a single tree that covers multiple lines tech. That way multiple actions give XP to it. Then the player spends skill points to unlock more trees in what ever order they want. Similar to how Riftbreaker ( game ) does it 

 

This way it will drastically decrease the grind - it will constantly give players access to new items in reasonable time frames. So players aren't playing 10 hours of grind for a single skill to unlock 1 recipe.  It instead would be crafting + extraction -  all give XP to a single tree.

 

Major Crafting Change ( Removed Skills ) 

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Skills Like Tailoring \ Leatherworking \ Electrician are removed. ( Except cooking remains same ) 

Instead these are moved to "Professions" or "Traits" 

If you pick a profession you unlock almost all recipes associated with that tech tree branch with best quality associated.

If you pick a Trait ( hobby ) you unlock some of the recipes associated with that branch and can make reasonable good quality.

 

If you don't pick that branch you have to find books to learn each individual branch and spend skill points to get specific recipes from that branch 

 

Item Mods

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Finally the "Higher" your crafting rank lets you modify gear more. 

Leather Grip on Bat to reduces Staamina 

Nails on Bat to increase damage

Metal Reinforcement to increase durability

etc

 

So lower level in that "Branch" can only pick 1 mod. More points you invest in that branch the more "mods" you can add to it.

 

 

Summary

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While having a Hybrid Book Recipe +  Skill Point System might not be "realistic"

It heavily reduces the grind players face + while still promoting exploration to find the skill recipe books 

It also allows players more freedom to unlock what they want  without having to repeat exact same action 1000 times. ( walking on broken glass anyone? ) 

Now they can gain XP from doing many different actions for a single skill tier. Instead of ranking it up, you use those points to get unlocks on things  you "discovered" via books.